If Only
by Soft Ripple
Summary: A certain tragedy caused Bella to leave the Cullens in Phoenix. Five years later, she's attending Dartmouth, now having finally moved on from the past but has she really? Can Edward's return in her life possibly be what she needs to finally move on?
1. Prologue: Give Me a Chance

**Prologue: Give Me a Chance?**

BPOV

My words were lost in my throat and my mind was a blank as I saw his lips hover dangerously close to mine. His eyes were intense emerald flames and I found myself all the more dazzled by that intensity. He leaned in even closer and any doubt I had of his intention to kiss me before was now erased.

"Edward-"

But my lips were silenced as he chose that precise moment to act upon his intentions. His lips came crashing down on mine and I felt such fiery passion in the way his lips moved against mine that my will to resist crumbled to dust before I found myself reciprocating to his kiss, with just as much passion as him if not more. My mind was whirling chaotically and all reason and logic was lost upon me. Kissing Edward was such a powerful sensation that even if the building not too far away suddenly exploded then I would not have taken any notice, for fear of losing the precious time that could be spent feeling Edward's lips on mine.

I felt his tongue pleading for entrance and I granted it just that almost instantly. Our kiss deepened and we moulded together like we were meant to do this since the day we were born. Eventually, we separated for the necessity of oxygen and breathed heavily, Edward rested his head against mine, his sweet breath fanning my face.

I felt a raindrop fall on me and it seemed that that single plop brought me to my senses. I had just kissed Edward. That was wrong. I shouldn't have done that. I jerked away from him, causing hurt to cross Edward's face.

"Bella" he said reaching out for me.

I moved away from him.

"Bella, look I know I shouldn't have done that but I can't take it anymore. You need to know the truth. I love yo-"

"NO! DON'T EVEN FINISH THAT!" I screeched.

"Bella-"Edward began beseechingly with requesting eyes but I looked away. Those eyes had already trapped me one too many times.

"Just give me a chance" Edward pleaded. I didn't need him to tell me to know what he meant. But I couldn't give him a chance. I didn't deserve a chance to give out chances. The fact that I had just let him kiss me was proof enough that all I ever did was make mistakes.

"No! I'm not giving you any chances Edward." I stated, shaking my head.

"But Bella I love you and I know now that you feel the same way too." Edward declared with such self-assurance that I couldn't stop myself from shrieking in a fit of mad fury:

"No! I don't love you. I admit that I loved you once but not anymore. You lost your chance already Edward and I'm never giving you another one ever again."

Edward looked like I had just shattered his heart but I couldn't let that deter me. I needed to do what was right and so before I was tempted to rush back into Edward's arms and sob I turned and ran, ignoring Edward's repeated cries of my name. I ran into my dorm room and flung myself upon my bed, sobbing my heart out with my face buried into my pillow. My lips were still tingling from Edward's amazing kiss but the old wound in my heart reopened and I felt a staggering ache that I thought had disappeared long ago, but now I realized that it had never disappeared. It had just been sealed and now it reopened and the pain was worse than ever.

**Please review. I changed things around a bit for the purpose of making this story a lot better. As you might have guess and is the case for a lot of stories. The events of this prologue does not occur till somewhere in the middle of the story. Reviews make me happy.**


	2. Chapter 1: A Couple of Years Ago

**Here is what used to be the old prologue now starring as chapter one. It's still introductory and should be a prologue but i can't have two prologues so this is now the first chapter. Review please!!!!!!!!!!!!!**

**Chapter One: A Couple of Years Ago**

Three girls trudged their way along the pavement of a busy street, wearing helmets and shin pads, and carrying skateboards. Cars zoomed past, leaving autumn leaves fluttering in the air and the three girls blinking their eyes free of the dust that had exploded in their face after a particularly fast car whizzed past them.

The first girl of the trio, Bella was thin and of average height and had long, brown, hair cascading down her back, big, chocolate brown eyes twinkling in her pale, heart shaped face. She had her hand wrapped tightly around the wrist of another girl who was much taller than her, this second girl called Summer had light brown hair that were in tightly spiralled curls of which the tips of her curls lightly touched her shoulders, she had leaf green eyes that shone with a sunny glisten, and a tanned heart shaped face with cheeks glowing with rose colour. The last girl was, Alice, the shortest of the three, with short, jet black hair sticking out in spikes, white, pale skin, and expressive grey eyes.

"Bella, can you please let go of my arm so that I can take a drink from my water bottle?" the tallest girl asked, the sunny glisten in her green eyes glowing brighter at her cousin, Bella.

"Fine. But don't get mad when I tell Emmet that it was your entire fault for making us late, Summer" Bella snapped angrily as she crossed her arms whilst she waited for Summer to finish taking a sip out of her water bottle.

Alice laughed as she watched the two cousins glare at each other irritably.

"Come on guys, you know how much Emmet hates waiting" Alice laughed.

"Well, we could get a move on if Summer would quit wasting time" Bella stated with a pointed glare at Summer.

Summer laughed good-naturedly as she said "You might want me to dehydrate, Bella but I am only sixteen years old and I think that is not old enough for me to die".

"Well, I'm sixteen too and I think that is too young an age to spend rotting away in jail for murdering your annoying cousin" Bella retorted, scowling.

"Oh, come on Bells, I though we are friends" Summer whined as she wrapped an arm around Bella's shoulders.

"We might still be if you quit wasting time here and get your butt down to the skate park" Bella snapped, trying to sound angry although the corners of her mouth twitched as she fought a smile.

"Someone's rather eager to skate today" Summer observed whilst arching an eyebrow.

"I suppose it could have something to do with a certain older brother of mine" Alice giggled.

Summer looked confused for a second before comprehension dawned on her and she turned to a tomato red Bella with raised eyebrows.

"You like Edward?" Summer enquired.

Bella blushed before saying angrily with her eyes resolutely fixed on the pavement "Look, I want to go skating now so if you guys want to waste your time out here then be my guest but don't count on me sticking around".

Then she abruptly turned and marched off without a glance at her two giggling best friends. Summer and Alice watched Bella stalk off with amused expressions before following. They arrived at a skate park where two boys were already waiting for them. The first boy was tall with muscles and an intimidating physique even for a seventeen year old, his sixteen year old brother was not as intimidating as him but had his own charm; he was lean and tall with sparkling green eyes and bronze hair.

The smaller and younger boy threw a crooked smile at Bella, Alice and Summer when they arrived whilst his older brother had drifted off to the ramps and had already started skating on his board.

"Hey girls, I see you've managed to come late" he teased, his crooked smile becoming wider.

"You can blame Summer for that, Edward" Bella responded slightly breathless as she gazed at Edward.

"It's called being fashionably late. Isn't it Alice?" Summer grinned as she turned to Alice for confirmation.

Alice nodded vigorously before wandering away to join her older brother, Emmet.

Edward grinned lopsidedly again before offering his hand to Bella. Bella stared at his hand for a moment as though afraid it might bite her but she blushed before taking his hand and following him towards the many ramps skaters used. Summer smiled slightly at their figures before following after them. They all skidded around on their skate boards for a while before the girls all decided to take a break and sit down.

"So Bella, tell us more about your little crush on Edward" Summer commanded Bella after taking a sip out of her water bottle.

Bella almost choked on the apple she was eating and glared at Summer.

"Get your brain checked out, Summer. I do not have a crush on Edward Cullen" Bella snapped before angrily getting up off the bench she had been sitting on.

She stalked off out of the skate park and onto the pavement. No sooner had she walked a couple of paces then Summer was by her side saying:

"I don't know why you're so embarrassed about it Bella. So you like Edward? So what? A dozen girls in our class claim to be married to him. Why don't you just tell him how you feel and then go out with him?"

Bella stopped in her tracks and glowered at Summer.

"I. DO. NOT. LIKE. EDWARD." Bella snarled.

"Bella, please. This is me you're talking to. You might as well be glass; that is how easily I can see through you" Summer laughed.

Bella ground her teeth, reached for her skate board and tried to get away but Summer was too fast for her, she grabbed the skate board before Bella could even get a foot on it.

"Give that back" Bella yelled as she made a grab for her skate board.

Summer dodged away from her hand and tried to run away but Bella made a lunge for her, Summer quickly retreated to the side backwards. However, Bella managed to catch hold of the skate board and by pushing Summer away wrenched it out of her cousin's grasp. However, this was a foolish manoeuvre by Bella for Summer had already been standing on the edge of the pavement and when Bella pushed her, Summer had stumbled out into the road into the path of an oncoming car.

The driver when seeing a figure lurch in front of his car had tried to stamp his foot down onto his brake as fast as he could but the girl had stumbled into the road too fast and the driver was taken too much by surprise and so the car hit the girl, sending her flying towards the ground, where she lay sprawled out, her arms and legs spread out in odd angles, an oozing gash on the side of her forehead, and the sunny glisten in her leaf green eyes gone as she stared up at the sky without actually seeing the glare of the sun, the bright blue of the sky, or the white clouds.

A scream had attracted many people towards the scene- the scream had not come from Summer who hadn't seen the car at all and so had not the chance to even open her mouth- and as they saw the still figure sprawled out on the road, a crowd gathered. What no one had noticed was that a brown haired girl with chocolate brown eyes had mounted her skate-board and had sped away. Half an hour later, ambulances had arrived at the scene and Summer was being loaded into one on a stretcher whilst Edward, Alice and Emmet watched with wide eyes.

In all this tumult, Bella had retreated into her bedroom and thrown herself upon her bed. She wept and wept for her cousin and friend, she didn't even consider hoping that her dear Summer would ever survive. She was right in believing that her cousin and closest friend, Summer was dead, she had seen the car hit Summer, and she had seen Summer hit the ground, already motionless.

That night, Summer died. Her funeral was attended by many friends and family, but not by Bella. Bella stayed at home after refusing, screaming and sobbing that she would not go whilst her parents went on ahead, baffled as to why their daughter would not want to go to her closest friend and cousin's funeral. Bella watched her parents drive off in their car to the funeral from her bedroom window with an expressionless and almost lifeless face.

A couple of months later, the Swans left Phoenix and moved away without telling anyone why and where they were going. They never came back. Within a year the Cullens had lost both Summer and Bella, they knew that they would never get Summer back and yet they sometimes thought that if only Summer hadn't died… but there are no words more useless than the words: If Only.

**This is only the first chapter people so it's going to be short and it's only something introductory that will be important in the story. Yes, this is relevant. If you haven't figured it out yet then this is the 'tragedy'. You could review to make me happy, if my happiness matters to you, that is.**


	3. Chapter 2: New Start Old Memories

**I know that you guys are probably thinking "what? i've read this chapter!" but got back and read the prologue as i have changed that completely and the old prologue is the first chapter and wheras this used to be the first chapter it is now the second chapter. So, you'll probably have to read everything again as i have rearranged everything to make the story better. Trust me, having the new prlogue will work much better for this story. I am still waiting here for even half the response I get for 'For Your Sake'. But seeing as this is only the second chapter, I'm willing to overlook the lack of hits and reviews. Oh yes, this chapter is in Bella's pov as will be for the duration of this story. **

**Chapter Two: New start Old Memories **

Sunlight streamed through the window, forcing my eyelids open. Don't I normally close the curtains before going to bed? I turned my head to see blinds allowing sunlight to slice through into my eyes. I turned away lest should I be blinded. It was as I first saw the blinds that I recalled that I wasn't in my bedroom back home in Forks. I had arrived late last night here at Dartmouth, so late that it took all of my remaining energy to take the stairs to my dorm room. Had my new roommate arrived yet? I roved the room with my eyes to see some bags dumped on top of mine in the corner. It looks like my roommate had arrived even later than me and had taken my lead and just thrown their belongings in the corner just like I had.

I lay in bed for a little longer, just staring up at the ceiling. My eyes wandered away when I heard a toilet flush from the bathroom. My eyes unintentionally fell on the picture frame I had placed on my bedside table. A lump swelled in my throat as it always did whenever I looked at the picture. It was my favourite photograph but the most painful too. The photograph featured five young teenagers playing around in a garden at a barbeque. The five of us were standing in a tight huddle together, grinning at the camera. Edward had his arm slung casually around my shoulders whilst Alice leaned against him on his other side, her arm reaching out to ruffle Edward's hair. Summer was standing next to me whilst Emmet stood on the porch so that he was on a higher level than us. His head hovered above all of us with his tongue sticking out at the camera.

I remembered that day. It had been the day just before Summer's accident. Alice, Emmet and Edward had had a barbeque at their house and had invited Summer and I there. Summer had been my cousin and adopted sister. Her parents had died in a car crash when she had only been five years old; therefore my parents had adopted her since I was their only child and would benefit from having a sibling. It seems quite odd that a car should have killed Summer when her parents had died in a car crash. I swallowed as I reminded myself that I was to blame for Summer's early death.

It was of no use to defend myself that I had never meant to get Summer killed; that I had loved her like a sister and a friend. The pain of her death stung all the more because I had been angry with her when she had died. It had all happened so quickly that I had never even gotten a chance to apologise to her for being so moody. I hadn't even been able to gather the courage to attend her funeral and bade her goodbye when she had died without an apology from me for my behaviour.

I shook my head vigorously, so much so that the room was now spinning. Well, at least that helped my clear my head of those depressing thoughts. I had moved on from this a while ago. After Summer's death, my parents had decided to move to Forks when they sensed that the trauma of Summer's death was distancing me from happiness and my friends. They believed that starting afresh in a new town, a small town would be the ideal thing to help me get over losing my confidante, sister, and best friend.

Well, though it took a while, it had helped. When I had first arrived in Forks I had been withdrawn and distant from my peers. But eventually over time I managed to pull myself out of the black hole I had been residing in. I made new friends, new hobbies. Even a new boyfriend. Damien Zenfer had also been a newcomer like me, though he had been living in Forks longer than me, he understood what it felt like to arrive in a new place without any friends or any notion of where to go or how to survive in a new environment.

Though he had been just one amongst many others to offer me assistance, his negligence of showing any puppy dog enthusiasm like Mike Newton or anyone else had been what captured me. His serene detachment from the interest or activities of all his other peers had intrigued me just like how his sharp sense of humour and sardonic perceptiveness compelled me to attempt to get to know him.

Damien had ice-blue eyes but they were not necessarily cold in feeling, his eyes reminded me of gazing through a frozen lake, crystal clear and concealing nothing, he had thick, wavy brown hair that was smooth and soft. He had also been accepted into Dartmouth and had arrived at around the same time as me last night, so we hadn't done much talking or anything as we had both been too exhausted.

I heard the bathroom door open signalling that it was time for me to introduce myself to my new roommate. I clambered out of bed and stood up to let my jaw drop when I recognised the girl in front of me.

"Bella?!" Alice exclaimed when she saw me sounding unsure that I was really me.

"Alice!" I squealed, there was no question in my voice as Alice looked almost exactly the same as she did five years ago when I last saw her. She had the same twinkling grey eyes, the same jet black, spiky hair, and she was still a hyperactive pixie. I knew her personality was the same when she shrieked so loudly that I had to check if the ceiling hadn't caved in yet.

I laughed as Alice rushed towards me engulfing me in a tight hug. I hugged her back.

"Well, at least I know not to worry about getting on with my roommate now" I laughed joyously.

Alice was jumping up and down on the balls of her feet.

"Oh Bella, when you moved we all kept hoping stupidly that you might come back, you never did though. But I had a feeling that I was going to love my roommate and I'm so glad that I get to meet you again at Dartmouth. I'm so happy" Alice enthused with another squeal.

I laughed but it was a nervous laugh. Alice's statement brought back memories, not just the painful memory of why I moved but even more agonising memories that transpired in the years following my arrival in Forks. Alice's return in my life brought back another dozen questions. Was it possible that Emmet and Edward are here too?

"So Alice, how have you and everyone else been?" I asked, hoping Alice would pick up my unspoken question that was hinted at as I spoke.

Alice did seem to understand what I was after specifically. After Summer, Alice had always been the one to know me best.

"Oh, everyone is great Bella. Emmet has got a girlfriend. Her name is Rosalie and she is really pretty and nice. I'm going out with her gorgeous brother, Jasper. They're all here at Dartmouth too by the way" Alice filled me in but she left out any news on her other brother Edward.

"What about Edward?" I blurted out.

Alice smiled slyly as she said "I was worried that you might not still be interested in him"

Of course I was interested in any news of Edward. I had been as fond of him as I had been of Emmet and Alice. I had even had a huge crush on him back then. Wait a minute, Alice couldn't be referring to that crush I had had on him, could she? But I could tell by her smile that that was exactly what she was thinking of at this moment. She was wrong though. I had done a lot of growing up since then. I had a boyfriend now, a perfectly sweet and caring one. Damien was the perfect boyfriend for me and I had no plan on changing his boyfriend status anytime soon. I had just been asking about Edward in the way an old friend would enquire after another.

"Alice, that was years ago. I was over that little crush a while back now." I assured her, though little was the last thing to describe my teenage crush on Edward as but Alice didn't need to know that.

"Are you sure about that, Bella?" Alice asked, scrutinising my face carefully for any sign of lying. I wasn't lying. I liked Damien a lot and no one else. I was a terrible liar and you could often tell when I was lying just by looking at my face. But it had been years since Alice had last seen me so for all she knew I could have improved my lying skills.

"Yes, I am Alice. I have a boyfriend who I am very happy with" I informed her.

Alice stared at me shocked.

"You have a boyfriend and you never told me" Alice screeched.

"Alice, we lost touch. How could I have told you?" I laughed as I realized that Alice was still as absurd as ever.

"Well, exactly whose fault is it that we lost touch?" Alice demanded waspishly.

"Erm…" was my only response.

"You moved so suddenly Bella without giving me a phone number or anything and you yourself never even bothered to try to call me so it's all your fault. Were you bored of me that you had decided to abandon me?" Alice pouted.

"I'm so sorry, Alice. But it was just that I needed some time to move on and adjust to everything and then I got so busy that I rarely had time to go out. I had missed you terribly Ali." I consoled her sincerely.

Alice's face softened at my use of her old endearment.

"Alright then, you're forgiven. But only if you tell me all about your boyfriend" Alice chirped happily.

I obliged willingly and told her all about Damien. She listened attentively. We spent the whole morning just catching up. She told me all about their lives since I had left but was rather disappointed when I wasn't as informative about my life as she had been about her life. There were too many painful things to discuss when it came to my life so I evaded her any direct questions about my life.

Alice had told me a lot about Emmet, Rosalie, and Jasper but nothing about Edward. She never even mentioned if he was here at Dartmouth even when I asked her. When I had asked if Edward was at Dartmouth, she skilfully avoided he question and moved onto another subject. I found that very odd. Had she and Edward had some fight? Were they now not as close as they once had been?

I did not dwell too much on those questions as I was just happy to have Alice back in my life. We sat at the end of my bed, just nattering away happily. However, I was soon to learn a storm was heading my way.

**It's a short chapter I know but you're just going to have to bear with me for now. Review please. They make me happy. **


	4. Chapter 3: Meeting the Unavailable Adoni

**Why am I not getting more hits and reviews? If it weren't for the fact that my other story 'For Your Sake' already has over 150 reviews, then I would probably stop writing fanfictions and just go back to saving my own stories on my laptop like I used to before I discovered this site. Anyway, enough sulking on my behalf, the few (and when I say few I mean few) of you that do read and review this story can go on to reading this chapter. **

**Chapter Three: Meeting the unavailable Adonis**

Once Alice and I were dressed we made our way downstairs to get breakfast. Damien was meeting me then in the dinner hall and Alice would then introduce me to the Hales and surprise Emmet and possibly Edward if he was here-Alice still hadn't mentioned whether or not he had been accepted into Dartmouth- with my re-entrance in their lives.

Damien met us just outside, leaning against the wall. He straightened when he saw me. With a radiant smile, he approached me and landed a quick kiss on my lips.

"Hey" he greeted as his lips brushed against mine tantalisingly.

"Hi. This is Alice, by the way. Alice, this is Damien." I made the introductions quickly noticing the peculiar look Alice was giving him.

She had her head cocked to the side, scrutinising Damien without any expression lighting up her elfin face. Anyone who knew Alice would know that Alice was the type of person who loved everyone and anyone easily so to see her staring at Damien like, not as though she disliked Damien but as though she was _going_ to dislike him. It was difficult to describe the way Alice was looking at him but whatever way I chose to word my deduction I would still feel uneasy.

"It's nice to meet you" Damien said to Alice in an obvious attempt to thaw out the chilling ice in the air.

There was a brief pause before Alice finally said without any real warmth "I'm glad to finally meet you".

I turned my head to stare at Alice. There was something off about her behaviour towards Damien. She was staring at him expressionlessly which was unusual for her as she normally met new people with a bright smile on her beautiful face. With Damien, however, there was almost a frosty edge to the way she spoke to him. Nothing that Damien would be able to notice but something that instantly caught my attention, being like the sister Alice had never had.

"Well, let's go get some breakfast. I don't want to keep Jazz waiting" Alice said with a bit more warmth in her voice as she breezed past Damien but she grabbed my arm and yanked me after her.

Damien followed after us as Alice towed me over to a table where a gorgeous honey blonde, tall guy sat. Alice stopped in front of him with a wide grin. He smiled warmly at her and the warmth was still there even as his eyes swept over me and Damien.

"Bella, this is Jasper. My boyfriend I was telling you about. Jasper, this is Bella, my best friend in the whole world."

"Alice, she's your best friend and you only just met her?" Jasper questioned with an amused smile.

"I didn't just meet her, Jazz. She was my friend from Phoenix years ago but then she moved away but now she's my roommate so she can be my best friend again." Alice explained happily as she danced to a seat beside him.

Jasper smiled at her before turning to me with a smile with as much warmth as there had been in his smile for Alice.

"Hello Bella. Take a seat. The others should be arriving soon" Jasper told me kindly.

Then realizing that Damien had been standing behind me completely forgotten I turned to Jasper and said "Oh and this is my boyfriend Damien".

Damien smiled slightly at him which Jasper returned although I had detected some surprise flicker across Jasper's face when I had introduced Damien as my boyfriend.

"Take a seat Damien" Alice told him without looking up.

I glanced at Alice with a thousand questions flashing in my eyes but she wasn't looking at me. Damien sat down beside me. Jasper then struck up a conversation with me, though he did make an effort to converse with Damien, he soon gave up after receiving no responses from Damien other than a few syllables and casual shrugs and just contented himself with talking with me.

Alice was unusually quiet. In all the time I had known her I had never seen her so quiet. At first I had thought that maybe she had changed in the years we had been apart but when Jasper asked Alice about her welfare I knew then that Alice wasn't usually this quiet. It was rather unsettling to be sitting on a table where only Jasper was talking but I made no comment. Then, I noticed that Alice had tensed up beside me quite suddenly. I glanced at her quizzically but she just hissed in an undertone:

"Brace yourself. Tanya is coming"

"Tanya?" I repeated inquisitively.

"Edward's girlfriend" Alice answered in a whisper.

"Edward is here?" I asked, also whispering for no apparent reason.

But before Alice could answer someone had plopped themselves down on our table in a loud manner which included, throwing their Prada handbag in the centre table which instantly compelled everyone at the table to whip their heads up, and then whining:

"Do any of you lot know where Edward is?"

I stared with raised eyebrows at the tall, willowy, girl sitting at our table with a bored expression on her face as she stared straight ahead at the opposite wall as though none of us here were important enough to feel her gaze. She was pretty, with a slim figure, long, strawberry blonde hair and ice-cold blue eyes.

"What are you looking at?" she snapped at me when she caught me staring at her.

My eyebrows shot further up my head but I decided to stick to the manners my mother had drilled into my head years ago before she…

I internally slapped myself before I could let those bitter memories enter my head. I was going to be polite to this girl even if she looked and acted like a stuck-up snob. It was possible that maybe she was just having a bad day. Yeah, and in a minute I'm about to turn into superman to save the Earth from an alien invasion. It was obvious that just by looking at this girl's glamorous attire and disdainful expression that she was a snob just looking for someone to lash out on.

Nevertheless I said to her as politely as I could "Hi. I'm Bella. It's very nice to meet you."

She looked at me as though I was something that had crawled out of the sewers. It looked like she was about to say something but then something behind me caught her attention and she broke into a wide, triumphant smile as she called sweetly:

"I'm over here, sweetie"

I shook my head in disgust. Did this girl have a multiple personality disorder? One minute she was acting like your typical snob from television and then the next she's acting like she's the picture of sweetness. But as a tall, lean guy with bronze hair strode over to our table and sat down I forgot all about Tanya's puzzling behaviour as I recognised the person who had just arrived.

"Edward!" I exclaimed.

His head snapped up and I saw the shock I felt mirrored in his sparkling green eyes. Then the crooked smile that had never escaped my mind spread across his beautiful face and the next minute I was in his arms in a tight hug.

"I can't believe you're actually here. I missed you" he enthused excitedly.

"I missed you too" I admitted as I rested my head against his shoulder like I used to back when we were kids and when we were young teenagers.

A loud cough made us instantly separate as Tanya asked in a sickly sweet voice "You two know each other then Edward?"

"Oh yes. Bella was the best thing in our lives back when we all lived in Phoenix. Edward, Emmet, Bella, and me used to spend everyday together" Alice interjected before Edward could answer.

"That's nice" Tanya commented though her tone implied that 'nice' was the last adjective she'd have preferred to use.

"It is nice" Alice agreed meaningfully.

Edward turned to me with a smile looking as though he were about to say something when Tanya suddenly piped up:

"It's nice to meet you Bella. I'm Tanya Denali by the way. Edward's girlfriend".

She smiled smugly at me. I sat down swallowing down the bile that had risen in my throat. How could Edward have her as a girlfriend? I hadn't even known her for that long and I already hated her. I glared at the table thinking of the injustice in this world. Edward had always been a charming, caring gentleman and so deserved someone pure and perfect. Not a two-faced, fake snob like Tanya-I-am-so-much-better-than-you-because-I-can-afford-to-waste-money-on-stinking-Prada- Denali.

Had Edward changed since I had last seen him? I peeked up at him through the curtain of my hair to see him smiling at me with his usual lopsided smile; he had that same happy gleam in his eye that I remembered from every time he looked at me. It was as I saw that smile at Edward's face that I knew that years might have gone by but nothing had changed my relationship with the Cullens. Edward was still my friend and that didn't look like it was about to change.

I was wrong about that though. I should have learnt by then that change is unexpected and so unpredictable. Change will never come when and where you expect. Something that you might think is permanent and will be with you forever might be the one thing that can be so easily snatched from you forever. That rule had been the story of my life so why did I ever imagine that that story would end here?

**Not my best, I know. But a lot of this is still sort of introductory so please review and I'll try to make it better. I decided to update this now as soon 'Too Late' will become my priority. **


End file.
